Actual Disney otters!
Mar. 9th, 2006 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ashetlandponyI bet you've never seen the likes of these guys before. Look! Actual Disney river otters!
What's the story? And who is/was "The Otter Man"? The Otter Man was a gentleman by the name of Emil Liers (1890-1975), a former trapper whose life was transformed by a litter of otter pups that he himself orphaned. Captivated by the playfulness and intelligence of the creatures, he devoted the rest of his days to championing the cause of his little folk in brown fur. For 35 years, Liers and his otter troupe toured the country from coast to coast, enchanting multitudes of children of all ages with his otters' universal charm.
In 1980 – in part inspired by Liers – I started my own conservation group to promote the preservation of river otters, and my efforts led me to cross paths with Liers' then 80-year-old niece, Marie Schaefer. Marie and her younger brothers, Tate and Gordon, were the otters' day-to-day caretakers at Liers' Otter Sanctuary in Winona, Minnesota, and it was one of the greatest honors of my life to meet Miss Schaefer and talk many times with her about her almost-legendary uncle.
In an act of astonishing trust, she loaned me the Liers family album – a truly priceless treasure. In it were 50 years of Liers photos and documents, including the Otter Man's publicity posters and pamphlets. Miss Schaefer told me that Walt Disney himself had drawn the otters for the cover of Liers' glossy promotional pamphlet. It was Disney's way of thanking Liers for letting his studio use his otters to star in their 'True-Life Adventures' entitled 'In Beaver Valley' and 'Flash, the Teenage Otter'. Liers was grateful, but as Miss Schaefer told the story, he returned the first copy of the artwork because it depicted the one otter with a fish in his mouth. Liers always maintained that fishes were not the principal food of land otters (as Liers called them), so he asked that the otter be drawn with a crayfish instead. Disney happily complied.
For the week that I had the Liers family album, I did my best to make copies of everything in it. Unfortunately, what you see is a scan of the commercial-grade xerography that was available at the time. I did manage to find the one copy shop within 25 miles that had a color copier and spent $5 a pop to get color photocopies made of the posters and the Disney image from the pamphlet, but alas, I can't seem to find them anywhere. *sigh* So the b/w image above is the best that I can do. But like I said at the beginning, I bet you've never seen anything like it, even such as it is.
A postscript. Twenty-four years after I started watching my wild otters here, a good many folks locally now call me the "Otter Man", too. I glow inside every time I hear that. Makes me feel I'm carrying on a hallowed tradition.
What's the story? And who is/was "The Otter Man"? The Otter Man was a gentleman by the name of Emil Liers (1890-1975), a former trapper whose life was transformed by a litter of otter pups that he himself orphaned. Captivated by the playfulness and intelligence of the creatures, he devoted the rest of his days to championing the cause of his little folk in brown fur. For 35 years, Liers and his otter troupe toured the country from coast to coast, enchanting multitudes of children of all ages with his otters' universal charm.
In 1980 – in part inspired by Liers – I started my own conservation group to promote the preservation of river otters, and my efforts led me to cross paths with Liers' then 80-year-old niece, Marie Schaefer. Marie and her younger brothers, Tate and Gordon, were the otters' day-to-day caretakers at Liers' Otter Sanctuary in Winona, Minnesota, and it was one of the greatest honors of my life to meet Miss Schaefer and talk many times with her about her almost-legendary uncle.
In an act of astonishing trust, she loaned me the Liers family album – a truly priceless treasure. In it were 50 years of Liers photos and documents, including the Otter Man's publicity posters and pamphlets. Miss Schaefer told me that Walt Disney himself had drawn the otters for the cover of Liers' glossy promotional pamphlet. It was Disney's way of thanking Liers for letting his studio use his otters to star in their 'True-Life Adventures' entitled 'In Beaver Valley' and 'Flash, the Teenage Otter'. Liers was grateful, but as Miss Schaefer told the story, he returned the first copy of the artwork because it depicted the one otter with a fish in his mouth. Liers always maintained that fishes were not the principal food of land otters (as Liers called them), so he asked that the otter be drawn with a crayfish instead. Disney happily complied.
For the week that I had the Liers family album, I did my best to make copies of everything in it. Unfortunately, what you see is a scan of the commercial-grade xerography that was available at the time. I did manage to find the one copy shop within 25 miles that had a color copier and spent $5 a pop to get color photocopies made of the posters and the Disney image from the pamphlet, but alas, I can't seem to find them anywhere. *sigh* So the b/w image above is the best that I can do. But like I said at the beginning, I bet you've never seen anything like it, even such as it is.
A postscript. Twenty-four years after I started watching my wild otters here, a good many folks locally now call me the "Otter Man", too. I glow inside every time I hear that. Makes me feel I'm carrying on a hallowed tradition.
